Dwelling-block.



PATENTED JULY 28, 1903.

M. F. PEIROE.

DWELLING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED APR. a, 1 903.

2 SHBBTSSHEET NO MODEL.

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A llomey f No. 734,938. PATENTED JULY 28, 1903.

M. F. PEIRGE. I

DWELLING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 8. 19.03.

NO MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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160. 734,938. Patented July 28,1903. I

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MELUSINA FAY PEIRCE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DWELLING-BLOCK.

:QPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 734,938, dated July 28, 1903.

Application filed April 8, 1903. Serial No. 151,690. (No model-l To all whom it may concern: dwelling. In these respects every individual Be it known that I, MELUSINA FAY PEIROE, dwelling has all the conveniences and privacy a citizen of the United States, residing at No. of a two-story house. 3 16 Astor street, in the city of Chicago, county Provision is made for access to and from 5 of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented the front doors of those dwellings which are the following new and useful Improvement above the pavement as follows: E designates in Dwelling-Blocks, of which this is a specientrance-shafts for elevators or general stairfication. I ways, of whichI have herein shown one at This invention relates to buildings, more the front and another at the rear and both 10 especially to that class thereof known as at about the center of the length of the block, apartment-houses; and the object of the although they may be elsewhere located and same is to construct an apartment-building in numbers according to the length -ofthe which will provide in each apartment all the block. These elevator-shafts are inolosed privacy and comforts of a two-story dwelling within their own independent walls to and I5 and to remove from the entire building as far stand outside the walls'of the building. Such as possible the danger of fire and its commuwalls should be fireproof, except possibly nication from one dwelling to another. Furthose marked M, which intervene between ther objects will appear below. the two stories of any one dwelling.

To this end myinvention consistsin a con- By making fireproof the walls and floors 2o struction of apartment-buildings, as set forth between one dwelling and those above and in many ofits possible variations in this speciat either side of it a fire in one dwelling will fication, one form being illustrated in the acnotbe communicated to the others. companying drawings, wherein- As the elevator-shafts used in this building Figure I is a vertical section outhe lineI I are located entirely outside the inclosing 25 of Fig. II. Figs. II and III are sections on walls, danger from fire in themis eliminated. the lines II II and III III of Fig. I. Fig. IV Although not herein illustrated, it is apparis a viewin perspective, showing one example cut that single systems of hot and cold waof ornament of which the block issusceptible. ter, heat, gas, electricity, and power for the Broadly speaking, this apartment-house or elevators and one common office will answer 3o gallery-block comprisesanumberof twostory for the entire building, it.only being necesdwellings superimposed upon each other, sary that the wires and pipes where they pass three being shown in Fig. I, and a number through a fire-wall be carefully protected, so of such tiers of dwellings arranged side by as to prevent the spread of fire. These feaside, six being shown in Figs. II and III, tures are notillustrated, because theyform no 35 thus making eighteen dwellings within the part of the present invention and are menapartment-building. The whole, mounted tioned onlybecausetheyarepeculiarlyadapton one foundation, under one roof, can be ed to economical employment in this type of served with one or more general stairways or building. elevators to reach the outer doors. The elevator or general stairway shafts re- 40 In Figs. II and III at (t and b are shown quire a landing only at every other floor, the in outline the arrangement of the various private stairs within each dwelling afiording rooms in the floors of one dwelling. It is to communication to each bedroom-floor. The be understood that the respective floors of main entrance from the ground is preferably each dwelling are to be cut up into rooms, like at the front of the elevator-shaft, as shown at 45 those of the ordinary two-story houses. The F, although it may be in the sides, if desired. lowermost apartments have their front steps At every alternate floor are doorways D from 0 leading out onto the pavement, and they the shaft, opening onto galleries G, which latmay have cellars or basements cl. Contiguter extend the entire length of the buildings 10o ous houses may have a light-well 6 between and have the usual railings R. The same ar- 5o them, and some of the houses may be prorangement prevails with the rear elevator vided with bow windows f. Stairs g lead shaft if an elevator or stairway is employed from one floor above on the interior of each there. By preference the elevator-shafts are situated, as best seen in Fig. III, opposite a solid portion ofthe fire-wall W, and the front doors H of the various dwellings above those which have their front steps open onto the gallery G, preferably at points remote from the elevator-shaft. The galleries 0 serve the purpose not only as a sidewalk to reach the private dwellings, but may be of sufficient width to serve as balconies or verandas. The floor of one veranda serves as a roof to protect the one immediately below it, and it is obvious that by having connecting ladders or slides at convenient intervals they will also serve as fire-escapes.

The dwellings may be planned in pairs with their front doors adjoining. They may have back buildings. Certain of them may be made of double width by removing or piercing the intermediate fire-Wall. Certain of them may be made higher than two stories by employing additional stairways g and plercing the necessary floors. The entire upper story may be constructed in the form of a hall the full length of the building. There may be a roof-garden. Fire-escapes (indicated at X or elsewhere, but always outside the fire-wall) are in communication with all galleries. All elaboration is possible in an apartment-building or gallery-block of this character which is now possible in those buildings not possessing the advantages of my construction.

In the use of this building the tenants of the lower dwellings (if the lower story is not used for shops) enter by their front steps 0 precisely as though they lived in a row of twostory houses and are not required to use the elevator-shaft. Thosetenantslivingindwellings above those just described enter the common shaft at its front door F, ascend to the proper doorway I) for their own row, walk along their own gallery G as though they were on the sidewalk, and enter their own front door h. For household service and for the use of the servants the back doors and the rear galleries and shafts are used in the same way. It will be thus seen that the galleries serve the purpose of elevated sidewalks and are reached by the elevators, which latter being built outside the inclosing fire-wall afford no channel for flames in case of a confiagration Within such inclosing wall.

Among the advantages of this form of building may be enumerated the following:

Instead of the European apartment or fiat of one story only, with everything and everybody on one floor, involving almost invariably a long corridor and small dark celllike rooms opening from it, with no true privacy or comfort for either mistress or maid, and with a distressing monotony in the home life from being unable to change from one story to the other, this gallery-block would restore to the most important element of the popu1ation-namely, to the immense class between the rich and the poor the two-story typical American home, in which fro m early colonial days Americanism has been developed.

Each two-story gallery block-house possesses- First. Separate parlor and bedroom-floors with all that these imply.

Second. Light and air in every room.

Third. Its own exterior front door.

Fourth. In the outside galleries play-places for the children and sitting-placesin summer for the family in the front gallery and for the servants on the rear one. With such genuine homes families would not be forced to leave the city in summer for relief from the heat as much as they do now, thus saving enormous annual expense and also that unfortunate separation of families for months at a time which so often results in unhappiness.

Fifth. The gallery-block by its two novel architectural features of the elevator-tower and connecting-galleries two stories apart actually supplies the variety and good proportion in high buildings which all the architectural ingenuity hitherto applied to the problem has failed satisfactorily to achieve. On business streets and centers such a block could combine stores on its lower stories, the galleries not beginning until the homestories are reached, and the block could finish at the top with'a school, a public hall, or a church, domed, turreted, or spired as its central feature.

Sixth. For the rich these houses could be planned with a door opening into a wide central hall with esthetic staircase and with rooms on either hand, and the staircase could be carried through the house above,

making a noble mansion of four stories with four central halls connected by three central staircases.

Seventh. For the poor or working class the single house of the cheaper gallery-block could be adapted, one story each to a family of the better type and half a story each to the families of the poorer type.

What I claim as new is 1. An apartmentbuilding comprising a plurality of dwellings, built in tiers one above another; each dwelling having its own front door, each dwelling comprising a plurality of stories connected by stairways within but connected by an external gallery With an external entrance-shaft.

2. A gallery-block consisting of a plurality of dwellings, built one above the other with fireproof fioors between them extending beyond their upright walls, each dwelling having a plurality of stories connected by stairways and an entrance-door in the upright wall just above said extension of the flooring, and an entrance-shaft outside said upright wall and having doorways opening onto said extension.

3. A gallery-block consisting of a plurality of dwellings built one above the other in tiers, a plurality of such tiers built side by side under 'a common roof, upright fireproof walls between the tiers, fireproof floors between the dwellings in each tier and extending beyond their upright walls into galleries common to all the dwellings in that row, each dwelling being composed of a plurality of stories connected by stairways and the upper dwellings having entrance-doors opening onto their gal leries while the lower dwellings have entrance-doors leading to the sidewalk, and an entrance-shaft outside the common upright wall of the block and having doorways opposite the respective galleries.

4. A gallery block comprising inclosing fireproof walls of substantially rectangular contour, a common foundation and a common roof, upright transverse fireproof walls dividing the block into tiers, horizontal fireproof floors dividing all the tiers into separate dwellings, other floors (not necessarily fireproof) dividing the dwellings into stories connected by Stairways, the lower story of each dwelling having its own front and back door, and such doors of the lowermost dwellings leading to the ground, galleries extending the length of the block in front and rear just beneath the other doors, and means common to all the galleries for afiording access to them from the ground.

5. A gallery-block comprising inclosing fireproof walls of substantially rectangular contour, a common foundation and a common roof, upright transverse fireproof walls dividing the block into tiers, horizontal fireproof floors dividing all the tiers into separate twostory dwellings, other fioors of non-fireproof material dividing the dwellings into two stories each connected by stairways, the lower story of each dwelling having its front and back door and such doors of the lowermost dwellings leading to the ground, galleries extending the length of the block in front and rear just beneath the other doors, and hence at every other story of the block elevatorshafts at front and rear located entirely outside the i nclosing walls and extending through all the galleries, entrance-doors to such shafts at about the level of the ground, and exit-doorways in the sides of said shafts at every gallery.

6. A gallery-block consisting of a plurality of dwellings built one above the other and in a series of such tiers side by side imperforate walls between the various tiers, imperforate floors between the various dwellings in each tier, each dwelling being divided into communicating rooms, and having an entrancedoor through the front wall of the block, steps leading from the doors of the lowermost dwellings to the ground, a gallery outside the front wall under all the front doors of the dwellings in each row above the lowermost, and an elevator-shaft having an entrance-door at the ground-level and exit-doorways onto each gallery.

MELUSINA FAY PEIRGE.

Witnesses:

B. E. AMTGEN, H. L. MCCLATCHEY. 

